Wednesday, September 22, 2010

My TED talk

September 22, 2010

It has been a long time since I've written. A lot has transpired since the ride finished but not all has been worth recording here. And, truth be told, I got caught up in the day to dayness of it all and did not feel motivated to write. Did not, mostly, think about recording thoughts here.

But I seem to be coming out of that foggy place and have some new clearer thoughts and am, with this note, starting back up in this recording of thoughts in this place.

For starters, I thought I'd give a link to my newly posted TED talk. TED stands for Technology. Entertainment. Design. TED talks are short talks about "ideas worth spreading." I've been keeping bees, um, trying to keep bees, for the past three years. This year I have undertaken beekeeping with renewed intention, and this is the genesis of my TED talk. If you'd like to watch it, go to You Tube and type in Laurey Masterton and you'll get to it. Or, if you like, try pasting this into the place you paste things to get to see them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5wLUikpVo8

or this one might work:http://bit.ly/cQjj4r

On another note, quite pertinent here, I have decided to do another bike ride. This one will be across half of the Northern part of the United States. It is a 6 week ride, from Fargo, North Dakota to Bar Harbor, Maine. It will happen next summer. At the moment, having no extra money, the challenge is how to come up with the 6,000.00 I need to register for the ride. But I'm sure I'll figure that out.

This ride's focus is the Bone Marrow Registry. While I was on the Southern Tier ride last year, I found out that Henry, the son of two of my key employees, had a serious immune deficiency disorder. When I came home, they told me that the only hope for him was to get him a bone marrow transplant. They were gone from work for the next ten months. Henry had a cord blood bone marrow transplant (from blood saved from the umbilical cord of some child) which did not work to fix his immune disorder. But then, in March of 2010, he got a second transplant from a live (anonymous) donor and it worked. Henry child is home, gaining strength and health. He's not well enough to be back in school yet, but he is much better than he was and is going to live.

So - my ride is for him and for others who need a bone marrow transplant.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Greetings,I hope this letter finds you in the best of health and happiness.My name is Jessica Jojo. I am an Indian studying in the State of Qatar. I am studying in the International School of London - IB program, year 11 In year 11 we need to submit a personal project. The topic that I have decided to work on is Ovarian Cancer. I am very serious about this project. You may be wondering why I chose such a heavy topic. Well it’s because firstly I want to become a doctor specialized in Obstetrics and gynecology. And secondly my sister and me, we both suffer from menstruation problems. We are in two extremes of the same scale. We consulted many doctors and they said it’s nothing to be worried about but I have this nagging thought at the back of my head telling me not to push it off as a silly thought so from then onwards I started reading and researching a lot. I came across many possibilities and after reading a lot I became interested in ovarian cancer from last year onwards. I want to make a website on Ovarian Cancer. I want the website to be something that would give hope to women around the world who are suffering from OC that they can get through it no matter what and to have faith. I would like my website to be inspiring. And I want women who are survivors of Ovarian Cancer to communicate through the website to many other women in the world about their experience and the survivors should be like an inspiration to many women out there, as role models! One in 67 women suffers from it and it’s the eight most common cancer in women. I read a lot of articles about women sharing their experiences of how dreadful it is and what all they had to go through. Many people as young as 18 years were suffering from it. What I noticed is that these women who are sharing their experiences sound devastated. They have this feeling that for sure they are going to die. But why aren’t they looking at the lighter side of the issue? There are many women who come through this and are leading happy and blissful lives. I read this story on the internet that there was this girl who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 18 and the doctors told her that she was going to do die no matter what but 10 years from then, now she is leading a perfect life and she is pregnant something the doctor said would never happen! Through my website I want to raise awareness about OC as well as to spread the message to women across the world that there is hope and no matter what they are going to get through it. In my website I would like to include a small movie on different survivors of OC sharing their positive experience as well as a blog through which women can communicate. This project may sound as a big task but I really want to accomplish it! IF you are absolutely comfortable with sharing you experience then I hope that you would be able to help me!?If so please reply. You can contact me at jes_jojo@yahoo.com. Thank You So Much.

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If you would like to donate - make check out to "Jubilee," with "Laurey Bikes" in the memo line.

Send it to:Jubilee46 Wall StreetAsheville, NC 28801

By the way, Jubilee is a church and by making a donation to this ride through them, you will get a note indicating that this is a charitable donation. Once all the money is collected I will send the donation to the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance (mostly) and to Women Chefs and Restaurateurs (a small amount for scholarship.)